Collide
by betruebeyou
Summary: When two worlds collide, you've got a mess. When three collide, you've got a mess, some heartbreak, and one hell of a story. Lily Evans struggles through her fifth year at Hogwarts, taking her OWLs, falling in love, and dealing with the mischievous group of four that go by The Marauders.
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

_June _

My fingertips grazed the stone walls off the castle as I walked passed them slowly. I'd grown to know these halls so well over the years. It seemed as if I'd been coming to Hogwarts for a lifetime, though it had only been five years. Five short, crazy, unimaginable years. Every year it was the same for me, I'd get this rush of feeling in me. It'd be an awful pain in my chest or a massive headache, or both. I'd want to cry and cry and cry and do anything but leave. But then when I got to Kings Cross Station and I saw my mother and father standing there waiting for me, I'd realize how much I had missed them, how much I loved them.

But it was different this year. It was different because I was so afraid that when I left this summer and came back at the beginning of next term, nothing would be the same. Of course, I already knew that they wouldn't, but at least I had that small glimmer of hope that, maybe, if I had just been given another week or two, things could have turned out okay. I was scared to go home to my smothering parents and my sister that wouldn't even speak to me. I was scared because no one there really understood. Sure, there were my old muggle friends who I played with when I was younger, but they didn't know me anymore. They knew the old me and the summer me, but they didn't know anything beyond the lies that I told them about my outlandish boarding school for 'science oriented learning'.

What really scared me, most of all, was the day that I would leave these halls forever. The very last time I would ever see the place, at least in the same way I see it now. The chances that I might never come back after I graduate were frightening beyond belief. The thought chilled me to my core. I'd even considered coming back and teaching, just to be here.

Being home would be too hard. At least at school, I had the distraction of small mountains of homework. I had essay after essay to keep me from thinking about him. Studying for my OWLs to no end helped the pain of missing him to subside, at least temporarily. Sometimes it helped me to forget that I no longer had him. It was permanent, of course, and I knew that. I knew the truth and I wasn't in denial; I was just looking for an escape. I was just looking for a way to dull the sharp pain in my chest.

When I was at school, where it all happened, I could pretend like it wasn't over. I could pretend like he was still by my side. I could pretend like he was still mine. Of course, though, he wasn't. He'd never be mine again. I'd never feel his soft lips on mine. I'd never hold his strong callused hands again. Only in my dreams would I ever run my fingers through his soft, soft hair. He'd never be mine.

I didn't believe in second chances, though I had given out plenty. I never had, but I wanted one so desperately. So badly did I want to be able to run into his arms and tell him how much I missed him. Kiss him slowly and whisper to him how much I had missed the way he held me, the way he looked at me. There was nothing I missed more than the way he whispered things in my ear, secrets that only I would ever know or how he'd kiss me in the middle of my sentence. I knew in my mind, right then, that it would be along time before I would be able to go even a single day without thinking of his lips on mine, without coveting his love.

I stepped through the doors of the castle, then, staring out at the magnificent blue sky. It was cloudless and perfectly calm. It was a beautiful late spring day like no other. The flowers were in full bloom. It was right then in that second when I noticed how everything in the world is so, so beautiful and sometimes we don't notice, because we don't take the time to stop and look.

I looked around for Margo to try and get on a carriage with her, but she was nowhere to be found. I decided to go ahead and meet her on the train instead, I needed the time to think anyway. I took in a deep breath, literally stopping to smell the flowers, and as I was breathing I could have sworn I caught his scent. I shook my head, this was the worst one yet. Imagining I could smell him, as if he were somewhere around. Then I heard the footsteps. Heavy footsteps hitting the ground one after the other. A heaving chest, breathing loudly, pushing air in and out.

"Lily! Wait up! Please," shouted a deep voice behind me. It was a voice I knew I would never forget. I took a breath, praying silently to myself that this was it, hoping to God that this was my movie moment. I turned around slowly, praying that time things would turn out the way I had always hoped.


	2. Chapter One

_**Chapter One**_

There's nothing worse than having a birthday at the end of January. Seriously. I turn sixteen this January, meaning that I couldn't get my provisional license before first term started and I _still_ won't be old enough to get it during Christmas break. So I'll be waiting until the summer to get it. I know it's just a silly muggle thing and that I'll be able to apparate soon anyway, but I'm a muggle born and there's just certain things I don't want to miss out on.

A bunch of my old friends back home have there's already. Margo, my best friend and the only other muggle born in the 5th year Gryffindor girls dormitory, will be getting hers in December when she goes home for Christmas Break. Damn her and her lucky birth date.

This sore spot is brought back into my mind only seconds after I'm back into the Gryffindor common room for the first time in what seems like ages because of an annoyingly immature conversation going on between two of my least favorite people. Sirius Black and James Potter. The pair is rambling on about how they drove a—stolen, mind you—Maserati around London in the dead of the night over the summer. Peter Pettigrew, who's nice enough, I suppose, just a bit too much of a follower for my taste, stares at the boys in admiration. I roll my eyes. Doesn't take much to impress him then, I guess. Remus Lupin, the only one of the four that I can even sometimes stand, looks at them with a horrified look on his face. I grin, trying to hide my face behind my book.

"Amazing, yeah, Evans?" James says to me.

"Amazing isn't quite the word I would choose. Demonic, perhaps," I answer.

James snorts and says, "Hardly. We just took it for a little joy ride is all. It was fun. Y-you know what fun is right? It's that thing where you—"

"Shut up. I know what it is. It's just that grand theft auto isn't exactly my idea of it," I retort.

Sirius shrugs and butts in, "Hey! We put the car back. If we had kept the car, that would be another story."

"Another great one," James adds.

I scoff and Sirius says, "C'mon Evans. When are you going to learn to have a little fun?"

"I do have fun," I say "and I can do it without committing a felony."

"It's not always a felony," James says.

"Yeah! Sometimes it's just a misdemeanor," Sirius adds.

James nods. "Yeah and, believe it or not, sometimes we even have…"

"_legal fun,"_ the two of them finish together.

I shut my book in my lap and scowl at them. "You two are idiotic, do you know that?"

"Only because you remind us everyday," Sirius shouts at my back as I get up and head up to my dormitory.

"Yeah, sometimes we forget over the summer because you aren't there to remind us!" James says.

"Start giving us a ring or two over the breaks. Just to keep us in check," Sirius finishes

I resist the urge to give them the finger as I disappear up the steps. I hear their hands slap together down the stairs and I change my mind. Without turning back, I give them the finger behind my head. I hear them howl with laughter and I moan. "Pricks!"

I sit down on my four-poster bed and I sink into it, just like expected. This bed feels so familiar to me. It knows me. Margo hops off of her own and comes and sits, with her long legs tanned under her, on mine.

"Hey Lily Dilly Pickle," she says with a radiant smile on her face. She calls me that from time to time ever since our first year when she was trying to make words rhyme and she started in on my name. She got to 'dilly' and I wasn't paying much attention, but I heard it and said, "Like the pickle. I _love_ pickles."

"So I take it reading in the common room didn't go well?" Margo asks with a raise of her eyebrows.

"I hate those two," I reply. "They're the most immature ignorant blunder heads I've ever had the misfortune to encounter."

She laughs and says, "Let me guess. Sirius and James?"

"How'd you know," I answer sarcastically.

"Lucky guess. You know, couldn't have been that you've only complained about them six times a day since the very first day of term back in first year."

"Well, maybe if they didn't give me so much to complain about."

"Oh please," Margo says. "It's been, what, five years almost—"

"Four technically. This'll be the fifth," I interject.

"Right, anyway, it's so obvious that James is in love with you and you somehow can just ignore that so well. I don't know why it bothers you so much."

"He is not in love with me and I'm not ignoring anything. He's a prat."

"Maybe," Margo shrugs. "But he's a prat that's got a crazy huge crush on you. Not bad looking either."

I wrinkle my nose and say, "First of all, that's not true. Second, he may not be ugly but he's not exactly the purest at heart. And third, even if I did want to go out with him, I wouldn't. Laura liked him first, you know."

Margo shrugs and says, "If you guys were meant for each other, she couldn't complain."

"Good thing we weren't, yeah?"

"Good thing," Margo agrees. "Now anyway, c'mon change."

"For _what?_" I exclaim. "It's nearly ten."

Leave it to Margo to schedule us some outlandish late night adventure on the first night of term. There was no way I was going to let her drag me into one of her schemes before classes even started.

"There's a party, Lil'," she explains. "Mark Fowler turned sixteen today and he's throwing a party in the Ravenclaw common room."

Well, that explains that. If it were to be anyone to throw a party on the very first night back at Hogwarts, it would be Mark Fowler. He was crazy smart, Ravenclaw and all, but lacked any common sense, when it came down to it, sometimes.

"Absolutely not. There's no way. It's the first night. We have classes tomorrow," I tell her.

"Yeah we have classes tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and the day after that and for the whole rest of the year and the next and the next. So why can't we just take this one night and live a little, huh?"

I know it won't be "just this one night." There'll be other parties and other stupid things she'll want to get up to. But she's right, kind of.

"Fine," I say, "but if we get caught I'm blaming you."

She shrugs. "Deal."

The party isn't too much of a huge ordeal. It's most of the Ravenclaws and a few other people scattered from the other houses. I know how this'll go. Margo and I would hang out for a while and then she'd find some guy to chat up. She'd drink a little. Reel him in. Then change her mind and throw him back. All the while, I'd be sitting in some chair sporadically taking sips of some alcoholic beverage that didn't taste good and I wasn't supposed to be drinking. Fun.

Margo goes to wish Mark a happy birthday. I stay back seeing as I've never spoken to him a day in my life. I wait for her to return for fifteen minutes, before I realize she isn't coming.

"Damn it, Margo," I whisper to myself. I search for a familiar face in the crowd, not finding a single one. Finally, I spot Kylie Muller, a Ravenclaw fifth year, in the back of the room. Marianne and I are friends in the, 'we talk and laugh and have fun together, but only when we're put in a situation together. We'd never actually put ourselves together.' way. I walk over to her and her group of friends and I say hey.

I join into the conversation, only offering my thoughts every once in a while. I begin to stop even listening when I heard one of Kylie's friends, Melanie, say, "Yeah, Sirius Black is crazy hot. Potter isn't too bad either."

I groan and interject, "They're both repulsive."

The group looks at me shocked.

"I mean, sure, they're faces are nice enough, but could they be anymore annoying? They're so self absorbed!"

Kylie shrugs. "I'd probably still hook up with him."

I shrug as well, not saying anything else. I go grab a drink and to my surprise, I down it quickly. The usual burning sensation is gone from my throat and I start to feel a buzz throughout my body. I smile. I could get used to this. I grab another drink and down it as well, going for my third. Kylie raises her eyebrows at me and I laugh, though no ones said anything funny.

"Well, c'mon then. Don't just stand there! Let's dance," I screech in an almost inhuman tone. I take the two girls, leaving Kylie's other two friends, Mara and Lea, behind to continue talking, and drag them towards where everyone's dancing. We dance for what seems like hours, laughing and joking and jumping around. I grab a fair amount of drinks in the process.

Halfway through my fifth/seventh/twelfth drink, I begin to wonder where Margo is. I leave Kylie and Melanie and I look around for her. I trip over someone's foot and stumble into a chair. The room starts to spin and for whatever reason, I find that hilarious. I start to laugh and it's that stomach aching sort of laugh where you have to bend over and try to keep yourself from peeing.

I stand back up then, determined to find Margo. I walk over to a group of girls I don't know. "Where's Margooooooooooo?" I ask, laughing again. The girls don't seem to find her name as funny as I do, so I walk away. Spoil Sports. I head over to a group of guys and I ask, "Have any of you seen, Margo? She's lost!"

They shake their heads and laugh. A few of them invite me to stay and hang out with them and I sort of want to, but I have to find Margo first. I decide to sit back down, because someone keeps tripping me.

"Good God, Evans, you're hammered," I hear a familiar voice say in front of me. I look up and Sirius is standing in front of me.

"Am not! Just had a few drinks, T's all," I tell him.

He shakes his head at me. "You're pissed."

"That's not true! I only had two drinks or something," I answer.

"You're either a lightweight as hell or lying. Come on, I'm taking you back to our common room," he says.

"But I have to find Margo!"

"Margo is more than likely with Kent Wilde and wouldn't be very pleased if you were to 'find' her at the moment."

This statement sobers me up, even if just a little bit, almost instantly. I snap my head up to him and say, "She's with _who?_"

"Kent Wilde and I'm not saying I don't think it's a good idea to go stomp in on her—Wilde's an animal—but I'm just telling you she won't be very happy," he says calmly.

I suppose he's right and that there's no way I'd be able to navigate my way to them in this state anyway. "She's so stupid sometimes," I mutter.

"We're all a little stupid sometimes," he retorts. "I mean, you can't think that it was exactly smart to drink so much, huh?"

I attempt to roll my eyes at him, but something tells me it looks nothing like the sort. He gives me a weird look and says, "C'mon. We're going back to the common room before you embarrass yourself even worse."

"Even worse?" I ask as we head out of the Ravenclaw common room. "I'm fine!"

He snorts and says, "Hardly. And be quiet. I'm not getting detention on account of you."

"Well, no one told you to be all noble, or whatever, taking me back. No need to take pity on the poor drunken girl. I'm not even drunk," I tell him, proceeding to tangle our feet together and stumble. He catches me before I fall to the ground and he keeps hold of my arm. He shushes me and guides me back to Gryffindor tower.

The worst part is that we almost make it. We're not too far from the tower when I stumble over Sirius' feet, again. Only this time, Sirius isn't quick enough and I fall to the ground. "Shit!" I exclaim as I hit the ground.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Sirius mutters, helping me up. "C'mon hurry. Someone's coming."

But I don't need him to tell me, I hear the footsteps and see the light coming from someone's—a teacher or prefect patrolling the halls most likely—wand just as well as he does. Sirius grabs my arm and starts running the other direction, he stops at a door that I don't notice and pulls me inside.

It's pitch black inside and it smells like cleaning supplies. I shuffle my feet around trying to find a comfortable position and I end up tripping over a mop or a broom and falling into a bucket that—thank God—seems to be empty.

"God, Evans. Could you be anymore clumsy," Sirius hisses to me.

"Shut up," I tell him. "I'm rolling my eyes at you, just so you know."

"Oh, I knew. It may be dark, but I can literally feel your annoyance," he replies.

I'm about to reply when I hear the footsteps getting louder. Whoever it is begins to get closer and closer, until I can see their wand light through the bottom of the door. They stop momentarily in front of the closet and I hold my breath, not wanting to make a sound. Luckily, they keep walking. I hear their footsteps getting further and further away until I can't hear them at all.

I start to stand thinking that it'll finally be safe to get up and leave, but then I start to hear the footsteps getting closer again. After a while I realize that whoever's patrolling is suspicious and has started to walk up and down this corridor. We could be in here all night.

Sirius realizes this at the same time as me. I can see the outline of his body shrugging and he says, "Alright. Nothing's wrong with an old fashioned slumber party, yeah?"

I scoff and I say, "Sure. I can't believe I got dragged into this."

"I didn't drag you into anything. I was just being my chivalrous self and we ran into a rough patch, no biggie," he says as if nothing's wrong.

"I didn't need your chivalry," I tell him.

"Like hell you didn't," he laughs. "You were completely shitfaced—still are, as a matter of fact—and you had no chance of making it through the night without killing or mortifyingly embarrassing yourself. "

"I was not! I was _fine!_ I told you I was fine and you ignored me and you've landed us in some broom cupboard!"

"First off, can you be quiet," he hisses. "Do you want to get caught? And second, I think it's more of a cleaning supplies closet. Dunno, more than just brooms, yeah?"

I open my mouth to retort when the door swings open and a light is shined in our face.

"Black! Evans!" Professor McGonagall snaps. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Not quite, Professor. I left my watch up in the dormitory unfortunately," Sirius replies cheekily. Does he _never_ shut his mouth?

"I don't need any of that. It's nearly half three! What makes the two of you think it's acceptable to be up and about at this house? And in a caretaker's closet, no less! Come with me, both of you!"

She leads us to her office, which is just down the corridor, and shuts the door behind us. She points to chairs in front of her desk and as we sit in them, she sits in the one behind it. She folds her hands out in front of her and raises her eyebrows.

"Do either of you want to explain _why_ you're out and roaming the castle at this hour," she asks, her voice cold. I look to Sirius and he clears his throat

"Lovely night. Thought a stroll would be nice, you see," he replies.

McGonagall doesn't dignify his response with an answer and I don't blame her. She exhales heavily and says, "It's late and I'd rather not drag this on any further. It will be 30 points from Gryffindor and both of you will have detention this Saturday. Meet me in my office at 6 pm sharp."

Sirius groans and I throw him a look. He rolls his eyes and McGonagall raises an eyebrow, begging him to test her. He shuts up and nods at her.

"The both of you will do well to head straight back to Gryffindor Tower now," McGonagall told us then, flicking the door open with a wave of her wand.

"I'm very sorry," I tell her, speaking for the first time, and head out the door. Sirius and I walk in silence back to the common room. After giving the password to an annoyed Fat Lady, we're standing inside the common room and we're about to part ways. Just as I'm about to head upstairs Sirius says, "Told you to quiet down. See you on Saturday, Red."


End file.
